It is surprising that such a glorious page in the history of Cyprus has been kept in the dark for so many centuries. Cyprus, in addition to farmers, slaves, slaves, the oppressed, has to show in the Middle Ages some young men who defied the power of the powerful, who raised their heads against the conquerors and the oppressors and proved that his DNA of the people has something unique. It doesn't matter if the fight is won. What matters is the race, the fight, the uprising, the trip to Ithaca.
Exactly 589 years ago, in 1426, a people revolted. An oppressed people. It defeated the conquerors and imposed for the first time in world history the administration of the state by the people. Re Alexis' Movement for his time was something unique, something unprecedented, something fantastic. Perhaps the ideal for the ubiquitous of the oppressed.
The revolutionary movement of Re Alexis and the Cypriot peasants against the Franks manifested itself during the Frankish period at a time when the Cypriots were groaning for three centuries from the yoke of the Lusignans. The conquerors had imposed the feudal system. Many of our ancestors exchanged horses, hunting hawks or donkeys. They worked like slaves, literally for a piece of bread.
It was in 1426. The Saracens invaded the island, defeated King Iago in the Battle of Hoirokoitia and captured him. They loot most of Cyprus and leave behind ashes and rubble.
Taking advantage of the prevailing conditions and disorganization, Alexis from Katomilia, who worked as a horseman in the services of the king's messengers, organized the liberation movement. A movement with a pan-Cypriot character, organized according to the sources and with a wide impact on the people.
Legendary battles are fought and it takes control of many urban and rural areas of the island, appointing commanders from the ranks of the insurgent Cypriots. "The villagers put a captain in Lefkan, another captain in Limassol, another in Oreini, and another in Peristerona, and a captain in Morphou, and Alexis was killed in Lefkonikos, and all the villagers were given to his potsani and antennas. warehouses and they carried the wines, the well-wishers, others took the bread from the threshing floor, others the sugar and other things the good people ", writes the chronographer Leontios Macheiras.
Alexis makes his headquarters in Lefkonikos and is proclaimed by the revolutionary villagers of Re, that is, Rigas Alexis.
The news of the revolution and its predominance in Cyprus alarmed the royal courts of the West, the Holy See and the Sultan of Cairo, as they knew very well that the example of the rebellious Cypriots could be followed by other enslaved peoples. In this way, they put aside their enemies and the then capital is united, coordinated and suffocates in blood the revolution of the villagers of Cyprus.
On May 12, 1427, the leader of the revolution, Re Alexis, was captured by knights from Ioannina. He was transferred to Nicosia, tortured inhumanely and almost half-dead, he was dragged through the streets of the city. On the same day, the nobles of Nicosia gather at the palace to enjoy the spectacle. They hang Rex Alexis in a synagogue.
However, what highlights Re Alexis as a hero, as a legend and as a great revolutionary is not the result of the revolution but the revolution. The fact that a simple slaveholder gathered the support of the oppressed, united his people and liberated his homeland. He divided the land and the goods among the people and challenged the established.
Other peoples can also tell the story of the heroes, real or not, who sided with the oppressed and the poor. But for some reason, Re Alexis was unique, majestic. For example, the legend of Robben of the English Forest did not concern a hero of the lower classes, but a nobleman who helped the poor and never challenged the institution of the king. Or Spartacus in ancient Rome.
His revolution was not aimed at seizing power from the rebels and changing institutions, but at escaping freedom. The only revolution that can be compared to the character of the 1426 movement in Cyprus is the French Revolution, which took place 363 years later and because of its size it managed to inspire the whole world.
Alexis from Katomilia, not only liberated Cyprus for a period of 6 months, not only succeeded in becoming universally accepted and mentioned as Re Alexis, that is, Rigas or King, but he also managed to prove that the established can be challenged. Alexis did not only defeat the conquerors. He defeated oppression, he defeated slavery, he defeated the institutions of that time. However, it did not prevail.
The feudalism continued. The power of the strong was imposed. And because the story is written by the final winners and praisers of the establishment, in the end it is not so surprising because the story of Re Alexis remained unknown to many and there is not a single paragraph about it in the books taught in our schools. Re Alexis remained an orphan of hymns, despite the fact that he was the protagonist of one of the most heroic pages of Cypriot and world history. And so it will stay.
Rex Alexis' case is inevitable to cause associations. What does feudalism, colonialism, finance mean? Their differences are only techniques. In essence, this is the same thing. The imposition of the strong on the weak, the rich on the poor, the established on the oppressed.
Is Re Alexis in our DNA? Now that European elites, intoxicated by the power of money, are trying to impose a different type of feudalism, is there a bold, "overcast" revolutionary who will defy everything in order to rise to prominence?
Philological Memorial from the Municipality of Lefkonikos
The Community Council of Milia Famagusta, the Association Milia Famagusta and the Community Youth Council of Milia "Re Alexis", in collaboration with the Municipality of Lefkonikos, the Association "Lefkoniko", the Community Council of Mandres Famagusta and the Greek Cypriot Center of Greek Culture invite you to honor with your presence the 3rd Philological Memorial for "RE ALEXI", which will take place on Friday, May 26, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. at the building of the Association "To Lefkoniko".
Info: 99 484012
Source: dialogos.com.cy / Nikos Kettiros (15/3/2015)